Terrorist Blast Points To Saudis' Vulnerability

November 14, 1995|By Terry Atlas, Washington Bureau.

WASHINGTON — A bomb tore apart a U.S.-run military training facility in the Saudi capital of Riyadh Monday, killing five Americans and triggering alarm about the possible emergence of violent Islamic extremism in the vital oil-producing nation.

The explosion also killed a Filipino employee and injured about 60 people, including more than 30 Americans, at least two of them critically, when it ripped into the Saudi National Guard training center. The building is used by U.S. military and civilian personnel to train Saudis to use weapons bought from Washington.

This kind of terrorist attack is unprecedented in Saudi Arabia, the key U.S. ally and staging area for Western and Arab forces aligned against Iraq during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The bombing was all the more shocking because it occurred in the insular capital, the stronghold of the ruling royal family headed by an ailing King Fahd.

The Saudi regime has faced increasing opposition from both moderate and radical Islamic figures, who reportedly have gathered support despite a yearlong crackdown on opponents by Saudi authorities.

Some experts said it could be significant that the bomb was detonated outside a building used by the Saudi National Guard, an 80,000-member force loyal to the ruling family and led by Fahd's designated heir, Crown Prince Abdullah.

Although details were sketchy, American officials said the blast appeared to come from a van in the parking lot outside the modern, three-story building, which was engulfed by flames after the mid-day explosion, which rattled windows a mile away.

Administration officials could not explain why the building apparently lacked the kind of extensive security precautions, such as concrete barriers, that are standard at U.S. diplomatic and military sites in the volatile region.

President Clinton called the attack an "outrage" and vowed an "enormous effort" to find those responsible. The administration dispatched an FBI team of bomb and terrorism experts to pursue an investigation with the Saudi authorities.

Two shadowy groups claimed responsibility, both demanding that Americans end their military cooperation with the Saudi government and leave the country. One group, the Islamic Movement for Change, issued a statement in April that set a June deadline for Western military personnel to leave Saudi Arabia.

A second group, the previously unknown Tigers of the Gulf, warned of further attacks against Americans in Saudi Arabia.

"If the Americans don't leave the kingdom as soon as possible, we will continue our actions," a caller to an international news agency warned.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said increased security measures are being implemented at the American Embassy in Riyadh and at other U.S. facilities in the country, and that the 30,000 Americans living in Saudi Arabia are being urged to be more cautious.

King Fahd, in power since 1982, urged security forcees "to take all necessary measures" to find those responsible for the attack and to "intensify their efforts in repelling, warding off, and protecting the security and stability of the kingdom," according to a report by the Reuters news agency.

The explosion revived a long-running debate among U.S. policy-makers and experts about the stability of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter and the key American military ally in the Persian Gulf region.

Experts expressed doubt that the attack could have been the work of Iran or Iraq, whose agents would have great difficulty escaping Saudi detection.

"Something home-grown is more likely," said Michael Hudson, a Mideast expert at Georgetown University.

That view was echoed Monday by other regional specialists, who see the Saudi royal family as increasingly vulnerable. Islamic opponents attack corruption and the regime's authoritarian rule amid growing dissatisfaction over economic cutbacks caused by declining oil revenues.

The radical opponents also have attacked the ruling family for bringing in hundreds of thousands of American troops for the gulf war.

"There is a sense that, very clearly, it is getting more dicey in Saudi Arabia, that we can no longer take for granted the stability of the kingdom " said Bard O'Neill, a specialist on the Mideast and terrorism at the National War College in Washington. "That is not to say the regime is on the verge of being toppled, but things are worsening for them."

Last fall, Saudi authorities sought to gag one of the best known radical preachers, Sheikh Salman al'Audah, setting off demonstrations by hundreds of his followers. The Saudi authorities, generally less heavy-handed than regimes in Iraq or Syria, arrested hundreds in a crackdown that reportedly has fueled further opposition to the government.

"Saudi Arabia is becoming increasingly vulnerable because of the opposition to the regime by a number of extremist Islamic groups," said terrorism expert Jeffrey Simon.